Astra Rotlicht
Holsten-Brauerei

Copenhagen 5/5 2018. 33 cl bottle from Edeka, Damp. Little chubby bottle with red label giving it a slightly pornographic feel. Astra's strange logo with an Anchor and a Heart having intercourse on the label.

Pours clear, golden yellow with a small white head. Settles as a thin transparent layer of foam barely covering the surface of the beer. Moderate lacing.

Aroma is rather sweet and malty. Caramel, sugar with a very light hint of something roasted.

Medium strong carbonation. Slightly thick texture.

Flavor has pronounced sweetness followed by light bitterness. Aftertaste is sweet and fairly short.

Solid but also rather generic.

From the 0,33l bottle, it pours a clear amber color with a modest just off white head that diminishes. The nose gets some malt and spice, followed by the mouth getting the same, not much there, just a 6% alcohol brew for Germans to drink...

 

De Labirratorium. En copa shaker. Viendo Tokio Revengers 3x05. Agradable perfil maltoso y limpio aunque le falta algo de chispa y bebestibilidad que inviten a repetir

 

L:
-pours a clear deep golden with no discernible head
-low carbonation visible
S:
-diacetyl,sweetish,malty,,honey,spicy,bready
T:
-grainy,honey,bready,spicy,malty
F:
-medium carbonation
-light-to-medium body
O:
The Nose on this was pretty rough, typical of Holsten's Mass-produced Beers.On the tongue it's pretty mediocre, but still drinkable.
Won't remember this one in 5 seconds.

 

May 2015: 330 ml bottle, from CITTI-Markt Flensburg. BB date 06.2014. ABV is 6.0%. Deep golden colour, moderate but lasting white head. Aroma of grain and dust, a hint of caramel. Medium sweet flavour, caramel and grain, low bitterness. Not great.

 

Holsten-Brauerei “Astra Rotlicht”
,33L brown glass bottle coded “Mindestens haltbar bis: 09.12.21” and sampled on26.09.21

Look: A clear deep-amber/copper colored body is capped by a standard head of foam that drops fairly shortly. Minor lacing, particularly for a sweetish beer.
Smell: Richly malty with notes of grain, toasty bread, sweetish dough, golden to reddish caramel, and subtle floral and herbal notes.
Taste: The flavor follows the aroma with everything found there and additional notes of honey, leafy or tea-like hops, and the suggestion of some very low level roasted grains. It’s moderately bitter and thus sweetish upfront but it does somehow end up semi-sweet and steadily drying in the finish. It lingers with a bready maltiness that’s reminiscent of a soft pretzel, and a bit of floral and herbal hops.
Feel: Medium leaning towards medium-full in body and gently crisp.
Overall: This beer is definitely not a Dortmunder export as it’s currently listed here. Where to categorize it? Unfortunately there is no category available on BA. It’s a specialty beer. Apart from that it’s actually quite nice. The maltiness is fairly rich and complex, and there’s just enough hops to support that. More hops would be nice but then you’d have an entirely different beer, wouldn’t you? It could probably be better produced but I think this is an under-rated beer as it stands.
Review #7,443

 

 

Copper body, head fades quickly, little lacing. Strong alcohol aroma. Taste is sweet grains, honey and biscuity malts, Strong sweet and dry taste with some hop in the mouth. As a lover of bocks and helles, this heller-bock is not a good sub style. Hard to drink, sweet and boozy.

 

 

 

Little stubby bottle poured into a Tree House tumbler. (Thanks, Rob.)

a: Dark golden body. Slightly hazy. 2 fingers of a soapy, sudsy off white head.

s: Sweet malts and a yeast like fruit and spice scent.

t: Crisp malts with slight caramel and fruit sweetness. Grassy and floral hops. Slight spiciness.

mf: Medium light body. Medium high carbonation. Nice hop bit. Dry finish.

o: Not as bad as all that. I have had several beers brought over from Germany over the last few months and I am starting to think what they drink and what they ship are two different beers. The beer I had for this review was much better than Astra Rotlicht I have had before. Perhaps it doesn't sit on the shelf as long over there.

Amazing export lager from the red light district of St.Pauli/Hamburg. I drank this brew out of a 330 ml bottle. This beer has an amber color with a small head and medium carbonation. The flavour is amazing to me. Bready and sweet with a little alcoholic aftertaste that I really enjoyed. Very drinkable! I high recommend this brew. Hamburg's best beer in my eyes.

From BeerAdvocate Magazine #86 (Mar 2014):

Grassy, Herbal, Bold

Full flavored and quite bold, this lager really takes hold of the tastes buds for a while. Spicy and herbal hop character wins us over. Another great example of lagers deserving the same respect as any other beer out there. Well within its style, though we hoped it would be a little bit cleaner.

STYLE: Dortmunder Lager | ABV: 6.0% | AVAILABILITY: Year-round